1. Field of the Invention
This device generally relates to insect control devices and, more specifically, to a device for interrupting the gestation cycle of mosquito's.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Crawling and flying insects have long been a problem to human beings and animals. While most of these insects are only an irritation that detract from being outdoors, many insects can and do provide serious health risks. Thus, many insects, such as mosquitoes, carry and breed various disease-producing organisms. Thus, some mosquitoes like to feed from birds and other species like to feed from animals, including people. The female mosquito is more problematic than the male. Aside from the fact that the female is responsible for laying eggs, a female mosquito can live up to three weeks during the summer and will feed on blood more than once. When this happens, the female mosquito has the potential to transmit blood-born diseases from one animal or person to another. Throughout history, mosquitoes have been a source of major medical epidemics including Malaria, Yellow Fever and West Nile Virus which is spread by mosquitoes that have fed on the blood of infected birds. Other diseases that mosquitoes have promoted include Dengue Fever and Saint Louis Encephalitis.
The best defense to being bitten by mosquitoes is prevention and protection. Thus, when going outdoors, certain repellents are recommended that contain DEET or other approved ingredients that repel mosquitoes. However, also effective is the elimination of mosquito breeding sites. Since mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water and it takes approximately four days for the eggs hatch and to grow into adults that are ready to fly, even a small amount of water, for example, in a saucer under a flower pot is enough to act as a breeding ground. As a result it is important to eliminate as much standing water around a property as possible.
Mosquitoes get their start in water. The female can lay a hundred to four hundred eggs directly on the water surface and they are likely to hatch within twenty-four hours. Mosquito larva gestate beneath the surface of even the smallest amount of water. When conditions are right the entire cycle from egg to adult can be completed in less than ten days.
On the basis of the experience in the Panama Canal, where thousands of fatalities resulted from Malaria, the physicians were aware that Malaria was caused by the anopheles mosquito and the life cycle of the mosquito were understood as well. One of the steps taken at that time was to discourage reproduction by mosquitoes by placing oil in every pool of water that was found. The efforts to interrupt the breeding cycle of the mosquito almost completely eliminated the risk of Malaria to the construction teams. Yet, although efforts to stop the spread of Malaria commenced almost two hundred years ago Malaria has not yet been totally eradicated. It is said that over a million children die of Malaria every year.
Attempts have been made to impregnate mosquito nets with insecticide. These nets are hung over people's beds at night because the anopheles mosquito prefers to bite at night. Mosquitoes nets, however, can cost in excess of $5.00 each—a price that is steep for many individuals in developing countries to pay. Consequently, it is the health organizations that deliver such blankets that are relied upon for mosquito protection.
It should be clear, therefore, that two primary efforts can be made to prevent mosquitoes from biting. Either barriers can be used that cover and protect individuals or the number of mosquitoes can be reduced by interrupting their gestation cycle and, therefore, the hatching of many eggs that would otherwise become adult biting mosquitoes.
Because mosquitoes gestate beneath the surface of a body of water, however small, female mosquitoes about to lay eggs sense water molecules that evaporate from a body of water and are attracted to the body of water. When such a mosquito encounters the body of water it lays the eggs on the surface of the water.
Thus, while numerous devices have been proposed to prevent or interfere with a mosquito's activities in biting humans many of these procedures have been either inconvenient, costly or ineffective.